Apple Accuses HTC of Abusing Essential Patents

Apple has filed a counterclaim against HTC that accuses the Taiwanese smartphone maker of abusing its standards essential patents and failure to offer fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms. This particular action is in response to a claim filed against Apple by HTC. In Apple's filing, it says HTC used legal trickery to sue it over patent violations while at the same time refusing to license those patents in compliance with FRAND. In particular, Apple accuses HTC of breach of contract based on standards-related misconduct; fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud; promissory estoppel; conspiracy under statute 1 of the Sherman Act (relating to cartels); violation of statue 2 of the Sherman Act (relating to monopolies); violation of 15 U.S.C. statue 8 (illegal restraint of import trade); and violation of Virginia state antitrust law. HTC joins Samsung and Motorola in the short list of companies accused of abusing standards essential patents. These particular patents pertain to LTE/4G technologies.

You do not own your iPhone - It is property of apple. You may not customize it, that wouldn't be what apple wants. You can't install your own personal software on it - Apple wouldn't want it that way either. You are pa...(continues)

Apple has filed a claim against our own star, the Sun, stating that the sun is abusing its nuclear fusion patents and failure to offer Super, Uninterupted, and Non-Nuclear Yield (SUNNY) licensing terms. This particular action is in response to a claim that when an apple employee looks at the sun, as quoted, "It's just too damn bright".

In Apple's filing, it says the sun used orbital trickery to appear less bright at certain times, however still outputing the same amount of light and still causing damaging effects to the eyes and skin. Apple states this is not in compliance with SUNNY.

The Sun joins The Moon, and Finland in the short list of entities accused of abusing standards essential patents. Finland was added to the lawsuit be...(continues)

Since nobody here bothered to do a basic Google search as to the difference between the patents Apple is suing these other companies over vs. the patents Apple is suing over abusing, let me break this down:

1) All of these companies are part of a trade group. They all have contributed to the field of wireless communication as we know it today, with each holding patents essential to the very technologies our phones rely on. Obviously, it'd be crippling if someone bottlenecked things such as LTE or GSM communications, or HTTP data transfer. That's why these patents are covered under what's known as FRAND terms, which means a company will not artificially inflate the value of the patent to stifle competition.